Ham I.T.

Information Technology is one of the biggest buzzwords in business. However, the question that arises is “What does that mean?”. In all honesty that is a good question.

When talking to people, or showing a chart or picture, we are sharing information. In other words, we are communicating. Even this blog site is sharing information. To that end, we might agree that information is what we share by communicating.

What does that mean when applied to technology? Depends upon what you mean by technology. I certainly wouldn’t dispute that computers are a form of technology. However, so is the telegraph and radio teletype (RTTY). To that end, it is only fair to argue that ham radio is a form of Information Technology, and was so long before computers became mainstream.

Unfortunately, in our overly computerized world, ham radio get the short end of the stick. It doesn’t seem to matter that ham radio operators were sending information between computers via radio before there was an internet. It doesn’t seem to matter that ham radio operators were speaking on hand held transceivers long before the advent of mobile phones. The sad truth is that nobody seems to realize that ham radio was “information technology” before it became “cool”. Nor do people seem to understand that ham radio is the only form of information technology that will still be reliable in the event of a natural, or national, disaster.

Ham Radio is, was,and will always be a reliable means of Information Technology. It is only a matter of getting pass the prejudicial idea that only computers matter in the field of information technology. Maybe the ham radio operator is the one I.T. specialist that gets it. Maybe.